Hospital’s garden walk includes sale of books and lilies

The 22nd annual Garden Walk sponsored by the Hospital Aid of Waldo County General Hospital will be held Friday, July 13, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine. Tickets are $15 in advance or on the day of the walk. All proceeds benefit the hospital.

This year’s walk highlights Belfast gardens with seven gardens in the city and two across the river on Route 1. The gardens can be visited in any order. Aid members volunteer in each garden and refreshments are served. A map is included with the ticket for this self-guided tour.

The Walsh garden is just over the Searsport line on a quiet road that leads to the ocean. An Oriental-design fence and dappled willows screen the property as gardens flow around the house, which is at the ocean’s edge.

The tour continues on Route 1 to the Mainely Pottery shop where the Faunce and Oates garden is planted around the back. The owners have had deer, a woodchuck and even a moose in their backyard of annuals and perennials. Maine author, Lisa Colburn, will be signing copies of her book, The Maine Garden Journal, which includes photographs and gardening tips from Maine gardeners. The pottery studio and shop are also open.

At the Fancy garden, you can wander around the house to view a large variety of trees and plants with perennial flower beds, a shade garden, tree peonies and rock gardens.

On the same street, the Quinn garden circles the house with a variety of hydrangeas, bushes such as inkberry and elderberry, a large dahlia bed and perennials. Drinks and cookies will be served.

In town, the Tucker & Kulik garden offers a serene, terraced hillside perennial garden with a view of the ocean. Lots of stonework on the terraced slope and large stone benches.

The Condon Street Cluster is a trio of gardens within sight of each other. The Cole garden is a small, do-it-yourself garden only three years old but full of perennials and strawberries highlighted by an archway and a wall of round rocks built by the owners. The Curran garden packs a lot of plants into a fenced-in backyard with vegetables, hostas and climbing flowers on trellises. The Durham yard is spacious with perennials, vegetable beds, bird feeding stations and a garden shed.

The Hayes garden follows the curve of a stone wall and conservatory. The borders hold many varieties of hostas. The brick house was built in 1846 and two original plantings have been preserved – a lilac and a bridal wreath bush at the front. The owners have donated a collection of lilies that were divided from plants in their garden that will be for sale to benefit the hospital.

Tickets for the garden walk are available at Brambles garden shop and at the Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, and also in any of the gardens on the day of the walk. Plan to join the hospital volunteers for this affordable family event, which is the Aid’s largest fundraiser of the year. For further information, please call Wilma at 338-2785 or Sandra at 930-6739 or e-mail: sgordon@wcgh.org.